Last Will and Testament Apostille Service

In South Africa, dealing with the aftermath of a death in the family is never easy, and it can get more complicated when you receive an inheritance from overseas. The inheritance may come with surprising strings attached and usually requires a lot of legal paperwork when the deceased held assets overseas.

Whenever there is an international dynamic to inheritance, some form of documentation has to be submitted. In most cases, documents like the Last Will and Testament, the Letter of Executorship and the Death Certificate are required to be legalised/apostilled from South Africa  for overseas authorities. Indeed, the executor of the deceased’s estate will need to provide these documentation to the authorities in the jurisdiction where the assets are held. The last will and testament will commonly be annexed to the Letter of Executorship and this can be classed as one document for the Apostille process. However, certain authorities overseas will insist on the will also being legalised with the apostille as an individual document.

In the event that a foreign law does apply to the inheritance, unless the South African notary is sufficiently aware of the domestic inheritance legislation, a certification of said law will also need to be obtained from the appropriate authority of the foreign country.  Once again, legalisation/apostille and sworn translation may be needed depending on the circumstances.

There may be additional documents required but this would be determined the requirements of the local authorities in the country in which the assets are held.